TB152: The Effect of Juvenile Wood on the Properties of Aspen Flakeboard

While the effects of juvenile wood tissue on solid wood products and paper have been known for some time, little information is available regarding its influence on structural flakeboard. Juvenile and mature wood tissue were identified b y their physical and mechanical properties in quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.). Sections of juvenile and mature wood were separated from 1-foot bolts of aspen. These sections were used to prepare three distinct types of structural flakeboard : juvenile wood-based, mature wood-based, and one formed from an equal mixture of the two. The panels were tested for selected mechanical and physical properties. The juvenile wood-based panels performed significantly better than the mature wood-based in respect to modulus of rupture, thickness swell, and water absorption, while also exhibiting somewhat higher values for modulus of elasticity, internal bond strength, compressive shear strength, and linear expansion. The panels made with a mixture of the two types of flakes did not display some of the poorer characteristics of the mature wood panels.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_techbulletin/1052/thumbnail.jp